


cool and new worm story

by ostrichlittledungeon



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: CW: Discussion of Cognitive Disability, CW: The R Word, Gen, i also made worm abridged, it will be handled well but do not read if you are sensitive to these, so this is mostly a shitpost, this is just a fictional cool-and-new-ification of worm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:54:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28970910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ostrichlittledungeon/pseuds/ostrichlittledungeon
Summary: Something is wrong with the Queen Administrator, and its Manton limitations are broken, leaving Taylor Hebert’s cognitive functioning as an artifact-infested shadow of its former self. The tradeoff, of course, is that she is more powerful. cool and new shenagnagins ensue.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	1. one/too

**one**

My name is tailor herbert. I am not a very good writer but there is autocorrect to help me. I have a cool and new story about me to tell. it all started earlier this year in january. ever since then i have bin superpower and it helps me with bugs. I cuntrole bugs, I feed my bugs with otter bugs, and I use them all to make my superhero outfit. Especially the spiders, they are very friendlY.

ithink that my Sooper hito outfit is very cool and fashionable. It is made of silk and I dyed it in black and orinJ. The orinj is in the stryps that go around the middle and it looks like a spooky pumpkin. I know that there is a way to make it strong against my enemies but I do not have the paysans to do the research. so instead i am going by what looks cool and hoping it does well. against the lemons.

scool is not very good be cazu my friends make fun of me and they teeze me be cause i dont no how to talk very good or be smart liek they are. you can tell the difference between me before and after for shar and it is very sad to me actualy. my friends like to tel me i am bad and i will never amount to aunty hing. liek just today i was eating my lunch in the bathroom and they came in all three of them mady sophie and emma who is my beste st friend.

( i dont no how to use quotation marks as they seem too complicated. I will just put scuare brackets around when someone is talking.)

[hey tailor] emma said as they came to the bath door.

[oh hey emma[ i said as i sat there on a toilet. [how are you]?

[oh i'm doing great thanks for asking.] Emma said and I cud here mady and sophia laughing too. I was hapY to be having fun with my friends. [say tailor why don't you come to the door and let us in? unless of course you're talking a shit i really dont want to see that ]

[so grose said mady

[no i am just eating my lunch] i said so i went to the dore and unlatched the lach. but before i cudl open the door I felt a sticky juice come onto me and I screamed. I smelled purple and cranberry juices which was nice but it was not nice that they were on me and it was less nice with the smell of bathroom pee. my glasses got juice all over them and they were sticky wishes i didnt like at all. I also hate the feeling of my clothes getting wet. 

My friends were laughing and i am always happy to hear my friends laugh but it hurted me to hear them having fun at mit pensive.

[why did you do that i didnt like it] i said because i was sad.

[tailor it is time you grow up and live in the reel world like the rest of us. yore disability does not mean you get to hav speshul treatment it just means you are a fuckng retard]

[that is a very mean thing to say to a friend] i said very sadly. there were tears in my eyes and I could feel my bugs around me. I could tell they wanted to attack the girls but I could not do that to my friends.

[we aren't your friends tailor you have always been the weird re traded toilet girl. toilet tailor. it would be sad if it isn't so god damn pathetic.] i said sophia

This really hurt me too here. [ so you are saying friendship is over?]  
  


[tailor we were never your friends to begin with] sed sophia.

[that isnt true!] I yelled. Ema and I have been best friends forever. you are just taking her away froM me be cuz you are mean and you suck and i hate your perfume it smells like shit!]

[you always stink like a toilet tailor dont fucking talk back to sophia liek that she is yore better[ emma said. [maybe I were friends last summer but then I realized how much you suck. And then you got fucknig braen damij so now you suck even more. just sad fucking depresing excuise for a human. bairly even human]

I did not know what to say to that.

[come on girls, let's go, we have better things to do] ema said. and then they left and they were laughing and I was shaking.

Thankfully the juce did not get into my bag because I had left it by the toilet and the bath room was big because it was the handicap. but the juice did still stain the bottom of my bag because it was all over the floor.

in a way emma is right. I am not a human anymore. I am a Pera human. but i dont think that i suck so it was hurtful to hear from someone i thought was my friend. I feel very naive and taiken and vantage of especially because they were my only friends after the incident. they cried in court about how I was their friend and it had been a prank and we had all hugged in the courtroom.

what i did not understand was why they pretended to be nice to me for so long if they did not liek me. maybe they felt guilty? or maybe they were not pretending and they were actually still my friends and this was just another very meen prank like the one in january.

I decided not to have too much hope in that regard. I hoped my brain was not damaged. but that was not true. All I cand do is rely only on my bugs. i had hidden my secret for many months by now but if i was going to become a superhero i was going to do it now.

why? because I was angry. Whether or not Emma and Sofia and Madison are my friends there prank marks me angery. in the past when i have been angry my therapist mister wilson. sais i do it channel anger unhealthy. healthy anger management looks like punching a pillow not breaking things and what better pillow to punch than a bad guy?

so i am going to do it. I will become a bug girl, master of bug powers. and I will fight crime and be a super hiro. who nos? Maybe I can make some new friends in the wards.

**too**

I had an extra pair of pants and a plane white tee shirt in my locker for gym class which have been in there for a long time. i dont like going to my locker because it reminds me of januery but it is in a merjuncy. i found an empty room to change in and pulled of my stinky sweat shirt to put on the tee shirt then wrapped it around my waste. it stained the bottom of my shirt but it was better than putting it in my bag. i also change into the pants and tucked the pants into the fold between my sweat shirt. next i checked my bag to make sure that nothing was wet from the juice. the bottom of one of my notebooks smell purple and was crinkled but otherwise no damij.

thats a relief. All of my super hero notes are in a small pad that I keep in the small pocket of my back pack so it is good that they were not made to wet.

I was a little bit self conscious about my bar showing my shirt. because it was wite and see through and the bra is a dark black color. scool was not over yet so my dad was not there to pick me up but i was wanting to prepare for my first super hiro moment that nite also i was wet and angry and going to class would not be healthy for anybuby especially because i did not think i could control the bugs if i was more upset. I went through the hallway and into the outside where I walked down the block to a bus stop. I had enuf change for the fair and I ignored the wired looks I got on the bus focusing instead on my jurnal.

When I got home I immediately changed my closet and went downstairs to the laundry and also to make the finishing touches on my sooper hiru costume. My dad was not at home yet thank fully. He works at the shipyard and he is in charge of talking about the fairy and also deciding who to hire.

While I worked on poaching up the back I talked to my favorite bug, a spider named pachirisu because its my favorite pokemon. He didn't respond to me but i could feel his buzzing that means he is happy.

[sweet little pachy i said (i call him pachy for short) you are so small and cyut i am sorry you cant cum with me tonite. i am going to look foursome bad guys. and i dont want you to get hurt.

Eventually I finished the back and I slipped it on over my closet. I locked myself in a mirror and I was very happy about what I saw. black and orange like a spooky pumpkin just like i designed. It was a very flexible outfit because of the sikl. It was also very fashionable;.

I waited for nite to cume but it tuk a very long time to cume. i showered so that i didnt smell like juice and i did some homework while i wanted for my dad to come home. then i watched tv. i heard the back door open at around six in the evening and i said hi to my dad because i was hungry.

[hi tailor he said] [how was scool today] he looked very tierd from his long day at work.

[hi daddy it was gud i lied. especially lunch time that was very good] i think that i lied prety convincingly but he cost on some how.

[i can tell when you're lying] he said. He was frowning but not sad. He was conserned. [what happened]

[I promise it was good I am not lying] I lied.  
  


he opened his mouth to argos but he believed me so instead he asked. [what was special about lunch today?] he asks me. ooh a tuff question. I had to think of another lye.

[i spent some time with my friends] i answered.

[witch friends]

[Ana and paty] these are not real people but i make them so he did not feel so bad and gilty about my acsidint. 

[thats good] he said but it did not sound liek he meant it. It is hard four me to know what other people are thinking but I can always tell what my dad is thinking.

We moved on to another topics and about dinner. My dad brought me some peetza which is my favorite and we watched chicago prt. mirdin is my faverite. My dad says the sichuashions are fake and their is sijiai involved but i still think its fun to watch.

then it was time for bed. We said a good night but I waited in bed awake. Once I thought I had waited long enough I sneaked out down to the base meant stars and went down to collect my costume. I slipped it on and made sure it fit just right. it wasnt perfect but i could always tell my spyders to fix it later on.

After that I thought about going back upstairs to levee but there are to many creaky florre boreds on the way to the door. my instinks were telling me the best way to levee was through the basement window so i carefully unlatched the window and climbed out into the nite.

I only could hope I did not weaken my dad with my noys. on the floor boards. it was time for me to fly. I made a swarm of my flyers come out of the basement and had them to carry me into the dark sky. the crisp April air was very refreshing.

now all I had to do was find some bad guise.


	2. three/fore

three

brockton bay is a very nice sittie that lies along the east coast of the yunitid states. between new haven and providence. it is my home but it is also the home of many bad people. there are the azhn bad boys, umpire ad8, and some other groups that are smallir.

i am thinking i should look for sume so low bad guys so that i do not get hurt too bad. I flew over the sittie to the docks, which is where my dad works. There is a lot of crime in that eria so i know i will probably find someone committing some crime.

It was almost eleven thirty but it is darker than usual because menny sittie lites are off because they are observing the dark sky week as part of in vitro mental protections. so it was not too hard to spot a lite in the distance. the lite had an orange glow so it was definitely not an electric lite it was a fier.

I was very careful to uproach at a distance. I saw there were bad guys around a fier and most of them were azian so it was probly the bad boys. That is too much for me too deal with. so i kept going to see what else i cud find.

i spred out my bugs to every corner of the docks and looked through them for anything unusual. a cupple of mails away there was a building that had a dark in side even though the lites were on. very suspicious. i went that way.

as I went I looked around in the building. There are three people inside all customized out fit. one is in blak and lavendar which is cool liek my outfit. one is swearing a doggy mask and the last one is wearing old people close and a plane wite carnival mask. i can also tell what they are saying through the vie brayshaws when they speak into the floor.

[you guys reddy?] asks the wite man he sounds mischuvis.

[ready as ill ever be] this one was sed by not one of the three. it is a depe mail voice so it cant be the doggy or the lavendar because they are girls. i was confused until i thought maybe there is some buddy in the darkness.

[fucking lung] sed the doggy girl. There are too doggy cums out of the kitchen. [lets goe fuck him up]

[hum] said the lavendar one which is probably my favorite. [i think there is somebody watching us]

[huh?] said the wite man. [you think they got a new pera human?]

[no] sais the darkness man he sounds cerius. [no way. not so soon after tinker joined]

[unless they really are actively recruiting] said the wite man. [may be tattle got it wrong]

[shut up rejunt] says the lavendar one. [i dont think its them. doesn't even seem mulishas.]

[you can call me alec] said the one who is rejunt.

I realized they are talking about me. I don't know who they are or if they are heroes or villains. Suddenly I am skerred and I stop listening in. There's maybe someone else I can find who is very easy to beet. I am pawiferl but i dont no if I can fight more than one bad guy at a time.

Then I spot a small group of bad guys in between the azhn bad guys and the grupe with the lavendar girl. they are also azian but there is only one bad guy in a costume and the rest are regular people. So I went over there.

I crutched on a roof and looked over the ej to get ready to attack. the bad guy had a spooky mask with horns and a black robe with knives and bombs on it.

On my signul a bunch of bees went down and started stinging the bad guy. all of his people jumped up in alarm and ran off screaming to each other in a different language. I let them go because they might be criminils but they are just regular people. Also I sensed with my bugs that the bad guy made another one of himself on the roof next to me. but the reason I sensed him was that all of the bugs got made agen too. so i just made my bees sting him even badder.

the orijinal one of him disappeared into a wite cloud so i made the old bees come to the new one for double damaj. he was flailing around and trying to shake off the bees but his sute was protecting him from a lot of the stings. there were weak spots inside his elbows and behind his news so i focused my bees to go to that. he kept cursing in a language i didnt no. probably azian.

but as soon as I thought I was safe because I had a big bug storm around me he cudnt get in. He made another one of himself on the roof across from me and this one of him opened a bomb between us.

i was very skerred so i jumped off of the building and made it my bugs would catch me in the mid air. I also kept my bees focused on the bad guy who was now running away.

the bomb exploded and killed the old one of the bad guy and also all of those bees and some of my slower bugs. like a lot of the roches I was carrying around with horse flies they did not make it. This made me very sad and also very angry at the bad guy for blowing up my bugs. He has no right because he is a bad guy which means he has to be punished for his crimes. I felt tears in my ize.

my bees were getting too far away from me now because the bad guy kept making new ones of him further and further away. when my buds are too far away i cant make them as powerful so the bees were not hurting the bad guy any more.

It was too late now but I thought about maybe getting close so my bugs were powerful and then flying him up and dropping him. That is a good idea but yes it is too late sadly. I think i will have a funeral for the bugs who dyed when i get home laiter.

fore

Suddenly there is a big monster the size of a big car who is there. I fly up to the rooftop as too more big monsters come but these ones have the lavendar girl and her friends on them.

[you] said the lavendar girl climbed off of one of the monsters from behind the doggy girl. they are on the opposite rooftop from me. [you were spying on us. who are you]?

[i am bug girl] i shout and my bugs buzz with me. [master of bug powers.]

[i dont think shes very brite] said the wite man rejunt climbing off behind the darkness man who is not in darkness anymore. I can see him now he is wearing all blak and he has a skeleton mask.

[fuck you] i toled him [are you here to fite me? I am very angry because the azian bad guy with the devil mask killed my bugs. so dont test me]

[you fought owni li]? asks the darkness man he has a deep voice in person. [wear did he go]

[he ran that way] I pointed. lavendar girl whispered something to the darkness man that was too cuiet for my bugs to here. and then she turned back to me.

[yore new] said the lavendar girl. [a vijalanti i am guessing]

[i dont no what that is] I explained. [i want to be a superhero]

[i dont think your power would lend itself to being a hero. the bugs are bad optics] she said. [and anyway you are not a hero yet. that makes you a vijalanti]   
  
[I see] I say thoughtfully. [are you bad guys or heroes?]

[oh were villains all rite] says the lavendar girl with a big grin. [but i dont think we are bad guys. not in the way you are thinking]

[were trying to help people darkness man explained] [we dont like the other villains we think theyre immoral]

[speak for yourself, I'm just in it for the munny] said rejunt and darkness man gives him an angry bump with his elbow.

[the leader of the aby bee plans to attack us tonite. ] sails lavendar girl. [we were going to meet him halfway before we ran into you]

[who is the aby bee i ask]

[the azhn bad boys] she sais [its an acronym]

[i see] i say. i dont no what an acronym is but i dont want to sound stupid. [so you're not here to fite me]

[if we wanted to fight you we wouldn't be talking to you] growls the doggy girl [dumb bitch]

[bitch] said lavendar girl angrily to the doggy girl. [lets not pick a verbal fite ether] she turns to me [sorry we havent introduced ourselves. were the under sliders. im tattel tail]

[grew] says darkness man.

[im bitch] sais bich. [i guess]

gru nujd the rejunt again.

[what] used the rejunt. [who cares lets just go]

[hes rejunt] i said. [sorry you were rite i over herd.]

[so you fought off owni li on your own and also you can listen into pryvit converse shoes? seems like you re pretty powerful] said tattel tail. [normally i'd invite you to join us for the nite. work together to take down the aby bee you no? but i think you should go home for now. sit this one out. lung outclasses you ten to one]

[i wouldn't want to join you anyway] i told her. [you mite not think you are bad guys but you are villains which maiks you are bad guys]

[all rite lets just go] sais rejunt. He is impayshunt. [you herd her]

[yeah] said tattel tail and she climbed back onto the monster. bitch had never climbed off. grew and rejunt got back on their monster and they all went past me. [have a good nite bug girl] they said.

[you too] i shouted but then i felt guilty because they are bad guys and so i dont think they should have a good nite. but tattel tail was so nice to me and I like how her costume is so i am conflicted.

That was probably enuf action for one night. I could sense a fight in the distance between the aby bee and the undersiders but i believed tattel tail when she said it was probably out of my leeg.

and anyway i am still sad that my bugs had died. the whole reason I decided to come out tonite as my first day of super hero was because i was angry but now i am just angrier. maybe tomorrow nite will go better.


	3. Interlude 1

Danny Hebert hated himself.

Every time that he scoured the depths of his mind for some modicum of inner strength, he found at every turn that he ran back into the arms of that deep, hollow feeling. The one that commanded his thoughts when he drifted from a task; the one that, when he tried to look away, assailed him with shame and peeled back his eyelids and forced him to _look._

He knew that it wasn’t healthy. He’d gone to the counselors. He’d tried prescription medication (at least, before his insurance stopped covering it). He’d even gone to the support groups. But all of that required facing the agony of remembrance, and he hadn’t been able to bear it. He didn’t deserve it anyway: the help, the kind words of support. He had failed his wife, and he had failed his daughter, and there was no way to get either of them back.

Despair. He had often heard it described as a burning sensation—a passionate cry into the void—something big and vast and ringing with life. Instead it was cold and it was tight. That anxious sense of imminent doom he’d lived with through his high school and college years realized, all he could do now was fall backwards into its frigid embrace. Maybe he had felt that passionate grief for a week or so following Annette’s death, but he couldn’t remember what it was like. 

Likewise, _sleep_ was a foreign concept to him. Every night, he sat in bed under his miserable unwashed bed sheets and he read his fantasy novels until his despondency moved him to unconsciousness. And when he dreamt, the nightmares that came only served to torment him further, until sometimes even the mere association of a nightmare with the book he’d been reading the night before caused him to drop a series entirely.

So Danny, exhausted though he was, was far from asleep when he discerned the furtive footsteps in the hallway that told him his daughter was headed to the basement.

This was nothing unusual; she would often go down there late at night. In fact, he had first noticed it in February. He knew he should probably ask her about it, but in all honesty it was incredibly unnerving. Here was one among the innumerable reasons he hated himself: Taylor really creeped him out sometimes. There was something about her general lack of agency that made it feel profoundly _wrong_ when she was deliberate in her actions. He had learned pretty quickly after the accident not to argue with her when she lied, lest he suffer the guilt and grief that came with the goosebumps that crawled down his spine.

Ordinarily, however, Taylor spent at most half an hour downstairs. Tonight, she had been down there for over an hour. Perhaps he had simply missed the characteristic patter of feet on the creaky floorboards. Maybe she’d snuck back to her room while he was pouring himself a midnight glass of orange juice. He tried to be reassured by the thought, but instead he just felt uneasy.

Another ten minutes passed and he gradually relaxed, granting himself a brief moment to enjoy the book he was working through. Precious few moments like this, it seemed. The book was the second in the _Follow_ trilogy, which predated the _Maggie Holt_ books but was set in the same universe and written for a more adult audience. McCrae’s vision of a world where the orderly laws of magic replaced the chaos of parahumanity was the epitome of escapism. Absolute truth rather than the grating insincerity of the modern hero. Demons with ambitions and motives in place of the Endbringers’ senseless violence. And, of course, he in particular appreciated the focus on illicit deals and battles over relationships and familial sentimentality.

He went for his orange juice, then noticed he had to use the bathroom. He read for another couple of minutes until he reached a stopping point, then dog-eared the page and got up. He stretched and he yawned and set his reading glasses on the nightstand, then he exited his bedroom and headed for the toilet. He froze when he saw the door to Taylor’s bedroom lying open, like the salivating maw of some hungry animal. She never left her door open this late.

He crept to the doorway on unsteady legs and peered in at the empty, unmade bed. He stepped inside and flicked the lights on to confirm that his terrible vision wasn’t playing tricks on him. Taylor was still in the basement.

Danny crossed the hall to the basement door and cautiously, quietly pulled it open. The stairs were dark, but a light was on at the bottom. There were no sounds save for the gentle hum of the heater and the faint sound of chirping crickets. Taylor had opened a window.

Panic and fear overwhelmed him, and he considered how stupid he was for being afraid of his daughter. If she had snuck out somehow… she could barely assemble her breakfast without his help. She could be in very real danger.

“Taylor!” he shouted, taking the steps two at a time. “Taylor, are you there?”

An unusually large collection of spiders scattered in response to his arrival. Taylor’s diary sat in the middle of the room, dangling off the edge of a table that was centered within the sole lightbulb’s purview. One of the windows was indeed open, and it must had been opened at some point today, since he’d been down here just last night.

A horrifying possibility came to mind: what if someone had been walking by, spotted her through the window, and decided to kidnap her? All they’d have to do was ask her to open the window, and then they could pull her up through it. But it wasn’t realistic. He would’ve heard if there was a struggle, and besides, it wasn’t late enough for anyone to think they would get away with something like that. Nighttime break-ins tended to happen in the early hours of the morning, not around midnight when people were likely to still be awake.

No, it was much more probable that she had snuck out on her own for some reason. That was an even scarier notion, somehow. She had no friends, no reason to be out this late. Maybe it was his fault; he had given her a small keychain can of mace and shown her how to use it. Maybe that had given her delusions of invincibility. What if she had spent all these nights in the basement plotting this excursion? What if she was _running away?_

 _Fuck you,_ he told himself. _You should have addressed this months ago._

The next logical step was to phone the police. Maybe the Protectorate even. Miss Militia had given him her personal number at a community outreach event for Docks workers. She’d approached him after he’d given a keynote about the effect of the ferry on tourism. During the speech, he’d briefly shared his grief over the loss of his wife when talking about his commitment to maintaining the ferry, and the super-heroine had approached him to say that she was “right there with him” and that he should “call her if he ever needed anything”.

 _This city needs more people like you_ , she’d told him then. He’d held onto the memory as a symbol of hope and pride, but he’d stopped thinking about it almost entirely after Taylor’s accident.

He was also averse to actually picking up the phone. Annette had been partway through a text to him when she’d been rear-ended by the red pickup truck coming around that terrible corner between Bank Street and the Lincoln Parkway.

He hesitated, and in that hesitation he dug his nails into the large scabs that encompassed the lower palms of his hands, drawing blood.

The diary, at least, might give him some clues. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of rifling through his daughter’s belongings, least of all her private thoughts, and it scared him besides. He didn’t know if he could bear any explicit confirmation that Taylor had very little going on in her head. At the very least, when she wasn’t honest with him, he could sort of delude himself into giving her some extra agency that he knew deep down she probably didn’t have.

This counted as an emergency. Danny picked up her diary, careful to avoid getting any blood on it, and flipped it open.

His worst fears were confirmed. It wasn’t a diary.

Instead, it was some kind of superhero daydream notebook. There were multiple pages featuring crude drawings of costumes with “specifications” and pages upon pages of poorly spelled prose detailing an in-depth fantasy about how her accident had really given her a superpower that allowed her to control bugs.

Danny cried when he saw it. Gross, heaving middle aged man sobs where he couldn’t control the ugly fluctuations in his voice. He dropped the book and retreated upstairs to the bathroom, where he locked the door and let the tears and snot flow into a hand towel. His bloody hands stained the white linen.

By the time the creaking of the staircase and the familiar sound of Taylor’s uneven, ungainly stride reached his ears, his tears had ceased and his sobs had been reduced to whimpers. Still shaking, he rose to his feet and went to open the door.

And then he hesitated. There was no way he could confront her now. He waited until he heard the sound of her bedroom door clicking shut and quietly crept back to his room across the hall. He would talk to her in the morning. It didn’t matter how unsettled he felt; she was still his daughter, and she absolutely did not have the freedom to do whatever she wanted. Not while she lived under his roof.

He spent the rest of the night before he fell unconscious reviewing in his head the various ways the conversation could potentially go.

* * *

“Good morning,” Danny spoke tersely as his daughter came out from the bathroom and sat at the table. He didn’t give her so much as a glance, instead focusing intently on the eggs in the pan in front of him.

“Good morning, daddy,” she said. “Are you making eggs?”

“Yes,” he said, and he left it at that. An uncomfortable silence stretched on.

“Maybe we can watch more Chicago when we eat,” she said.

“No TV before school,” he said, flipping the eggs onto two plates of toast. He went to retrieve some cut fruit from the fridge, before reconsidering and grabbing the bacon. The longer he spent without needing to meet her eyes, the better. There was no spark in those eyes.

“I can tell you’re upset, daddy. Why?”

Danny placed two strips of bacon onto the pan, then closed his eyes, allowing the sound of sizzling fat to overpower the white noise in his brain.

“I’m not upset, Taylor,” he lied. “But I know you snuck out last night.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she said, quickly. Too quickly. Clearly rehearsed. “Anna is having a sleepover.” _Tense. She doesn’t understand tense anymore._ Not a revelation by any means, but every time she spoke in that voice, _her_ voice, was an indelicate reminder of the child he had lost. 

“Taylor,” he said, and put some force into his words, though he didn’t really feel it. “I know when you’re lying. Why can’t you just tell me the truth?”

“Daddy, I’m _telling_ you the truth. You don’t believe me. I don’t understand why.”

“I have never met Anna or Patty,” he said, removing the bacon from the pan with his bare hands and putting on another two slices. “Why is that, Taylor? No hangouts, no… no _playdates._ I can tell that they’re an excuse. I can _tell_ that you’ve made them up because I can _hear_ it in your _voice.”_

“That’s not true,” she said, angrily. “I don’t show them to you because it’s obvious that you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Taylor,” he shouted, pressing two new strips of bacon down into the hissing grease with his fingers. “Do you have any idea how much you put me through? How _dare_ you say that to me? I cook for you; I wash your fucking clothes for you; I buy you everything you ask me for, and I even watch your TV shows with you! I am doing my best to keep this family together, and—”

The front door slammed shut.

Danny turned to look, and saw his daughter walking down their driveway through the panes of glass. She’d had her backpack and shoes ready before she’d even sat down at the table.

He turned off the stove before knocking the frying pan to the floor with the back of his hand, hard. He pounded the countertop a few times with his fist, and then he was overcome with that hideous, nauseating feeling of emptiness and self-loathing. He turned the tap water to hot and waited for it to grow scalding, then ran his freshly bloody palms underneath.


	4. fiev

I left my home angry but mostly just sad. I am very good at reading my dad's emotions so I can tell that he didn't liek me. it sucks be cause i know he is lieing but he is also saying that i am lieing. and yes i am lieing too but he is a hippo crit. espeshully it is sad be cause i have a good reason to hide my sooper hiro.

today i didn't go to scool instead i went to the prt hed cuarters to give a letter to be given to mister arms master. the letter sais this:

_deer arms master,_

_my name is tailor herbert I am a girl with super powers who wants to be a hero. i am bug girl and i have bug powers. last nite i fought against the aby bee bad guy owni li and beat him so he ran away. pleese contact me my house is at 25 (censored) but do not cume when my dad is home you can come any other time_

_love,_

_tailor herbert_

the lady at the desk was very nice and even offered me a donut which I definitely took because I had not eaten breakfast. Then I goed outside after i maed sure too tell her its important. because i was still hungry i herded to a small cafe on the boardwalk. were my dad and i go sometimes. cafe valerie it is french and to get there you have to walk down the hill to the train station and turn right onto bank street which is where many moast of the shops are. It used to be a ruff erea of town but with the prt so close there is a lots of turism also there is a good view of the protectorate hed cuarters so other bank street restaurants liek my favorite is big jims have a big window in the back for the ombionce.

i bot a coffee and a baygul and i looked out the window at the hed cuarters it was kind of far way but there were botes near the big poles you could see people working and tourists also. i thought. i mite be in there soon and have tourists come see me. the idea was very inciting.

it was relaxing because i dont get menny opportunities to be away from my dad. mostly i am just at scool and then i go to home. but i wusnt relaxing for long tiem because someone sat down across from me. it was a woman with green ize and dark brown hair in a ponytail. she sap her coffee and staired at me.

[hi] I say confused. [who are you]

[hana she sais and she reeches out her hand for a shaik. [i am here because of your letter?]

[oh] i said [that is quick]

[yes it is. i can explain but first] she said nodding and she pointed at my food [why you finish that baygul? let's go for a wock]

i anser by stuffing the rest of the gaygul into my mouth and I weep the cheese off my hand. [ok] i say with my mouth full [lets go]

Hana leads me outside and we walk down an alliwey to the oshin to sit on some rocks. she sips her coffee and she seems very com.

[she says. youve heard of dragon of course.]

[yes of course] i sed i watch chicago prt]

[ah] she says [well what most people don't know is that dragon have a miner tinker power. not necessarily a secret but its not common nollij eether you wont find that info on pera humans dot net for example]

[ok] i said

[part of this power is she can read very quickly. It makes her tierd but it is still important.]

[ok] i said again

[of course mail thats sent to important people like arms master worinz high level scrutiny]

[so youre saying the dragon saw my messij] this is very disuppointing because dragon is cool but arms master is a lokul hiro so I care more about him. but i do not say this out loud.

[yes] she pozzed to sip her coffee so i sap mine because I still had it. i dont really like coffee but sometimes i drink it to feel cool and i wanted to look cool for hana.

[so tailor rite?] she asked and I nodded. [i need some details filled in. where were you last nite when you fought owni li]?

[the docks] I said [there was another grupe. the under sliders i think that they fought the bad boys]

[under siders,] she corrected. [but yes you're correct. We took their leeder into custody]

[what!] I was shocked. [you mean tattle tail?]

[oh no sorry] she said [lung the leader of the aby bee. one of our wards was on patrol she spotted hell hounds dogs on a roof and followed them to the fite. the aby bee were ready but apparently grews darkness cow turd owni li and they didn't give lung a chance to power enuf to beat three monster dogs and rejunts power also]

[I see] I say even though it was hard for me to follow everything she said. [then what]

[well] she said [then we came in and cleaned up. lung was half dead and everyone else was gone. its a good thing we got him too. that ones dangerous].

[so tattle tail is] . . 

[still at large. we dont have alot of info about the under siders onnisly]

[oh] i say [well rejunt sais his name is alec. if that helps]

[we know about him] she sed with a sie. [yah thats zhong poll vassal hes one of heartbreakers kids. aside from hell hound who has a history hes the only one we do no about in fact]

[oh.] i said [wud it help to have more info? i can spy on them with my bugs]

[oh rite your power] she said. [what exactly can you do?]

[i cuntrole bugs] I said. [wen they are close to me they are more powerful]

ishe nodded [what do you mean more powerful?]

[uh they just are] i said [i am not shure what you are asking]

[okay she say] I guess what i am asking is are their fiscal utilities hitend? better senses? what specifically is more powerful?]

[what is the first one] i ask

[physical ability?] she asks [um like. increased strength or faster flite or whatever]

[both then]

[oh!] she sounded surprised. [and you can hear through your bugs? see through your bugs?]

[yes i can both]

[[mind if i tried something] she asked me. i shook my head and she took out a knife out of her pocket then cut it in a rock to make scratches. [hmm] and then she put the knife into her other hand behind her back and as it past it blurred and turned into a gun.

[i gasped] yore miss mulisha]

she grinned and unzipped her jacket to show an american flag on her tee shirt. [thats me]

[anyway] she put the gun away. [doesnt seem to effect humans only bugs. so. let's get to the point. you wanna be a hero]?

[yes] i say [yes absolutely]

[well] she says. [if you want i can take you back to the prt hed cuarters to give you a tour and meet the wards. maybe joyn a patrol, see what its like?]

[oh] i say [i am not sure im reddy for that it sounds skerry. maybe unother day?]

[well its only tuesday] she says [and you have the day off, so now seems like the best opportunity before the weekend. i promise it wont be skerry, the wards are really nice]

[i dont have the day off today] i explained. [i'm just skipping from scool]

[oh she said] well thats not grate. that sort of behavior wont be tolerated if you decide to join the wards]

[sorry] I said feeling very bad.

[the point still stands] she said. [nows as good a time as any]

[i'm not sure] i respond.

[thats okay] she sais [we can do the weekend if you want but the wards wont like being forced to stay in side. on a day off. whats the hesitation with today?]

[i dont want them to see me without my out fit] i said.

[oh] she said and she laughed. [you dont need to worry about that. your sullivan identity will be seekret unless you decide to join of course.]

[so I can wear my costume] I asked?

[of course] she said and she sap her coffee. [ugh, tastes terribul cold. i dont no why I drink this crap. but thats america i guess] she gives me a smile and throws the into trash.

[one more thing] she sais [my identity is a secret. you cant tell anyone or you will go to jail for a very long time.]

That was skerry. i am starting to may be rugret sending that letter. i should have kept staying as a vijalanti like tattle tail sais. sounds so much easier.]

[me showing up like this? its a vote of confudince, okay? i dont have much of a life as a sullivan so i dont have much to lose anyway, but it still means something.]

[ok] i said. [i upresheate it.]

[now] she says standing from the rock. She stretches a little bit. [what do you say we go get yore costume and hed to prt hq?]


End file.
